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Truck and Bus Tires From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary Affirmative Critical Circumstances Determination, in Part, and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Determination

Truck and Bus Tires From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary Affirmative Critical Circumstances Determination, in Part, and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Determination

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 128 (Tuesday, July 5, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43577-43579]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-15837]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[C-570-041]
Truck and Bus Tires From the People's Republic of China:
Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary
Affirmative Critical Circumstances Determination, in Part, and
Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Determination
AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (the Department) preliminarily
determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to
producers and exporters of truck and bus tires from the People's
Republic of China (PRC). The period of investigation is January 1,
2015, through December 31, 2015. Interested parties are invited to
comment on this preliminary determination.
DATES: Effective Date: July 5, 2016.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Shore or Mark Kennedy, AD/CVD
Operations, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue
NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2778 or (202) 482-7883,
respectively.
Alignment of Final Countervailing Duty (CVD) Determination With Final
Antidumping Duty (AD) Determination
On the same day the Department initiated this CVD investigation,
the Department also initiated an AD investigation of truck and bus
tires from the PRC.\1\ This CVD investigation and the companion AD
investigation cover the same merchandise.
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\1\ See Truck and Bus Tires from the People's Republic of China:
Initiation of Countervailing Duty Investigation, 81 FR 9428
(February 25, 2016) (Initiation Notice). See also Truck and Bus
Tires from the People's Republic of China: Initiation of Antidumping
Duty Investigation, 81 FR 9434 (February 25, 2016).
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On June 15, 2016, in accordance with section 705(a)(1) of the
Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (Act), the petitioner \2\ requested
alignment of the final CVD determination of truck and bus tires from
the PRC with the final AD determination of truck and bus tires tires
from the PRC. Therefore, in accordance with section 705(a)(1) of the
[[Page 43578]]
Act and 19 CFR 351.210(b)(4), we are aligning the final CVD
determination with the final PRC AD determination. Consequently, the
final CVD determination will be issued on the same date as the PRC AD
determination, which is currently scheduled to be issued no later than
November 9, 2016.
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\2\ The petitioner in this investigation is the United Steel,
Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial
and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC (the ``USW'').
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Scope of the Investigation
The product covered by this investigation is truck and bus tires
from the PRC. For a full description of the scope of the investigation,
see Appendix I.
Scope Comments
Certain interested parties commented on the scope of the
investigation as it appeared in the Initiation Notice. For discussion
of those comments, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\3\
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\3\ See Memorandum from Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, to
Paul Piquado, Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance,
regarding ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Affirmative
Determination: Countervailing Duty Investigation of Truck and Bus
Tires from the People's Republic of China; and the Preliminary
Affirmative Determination of Critical Circummstances, in Part''
dated concurrently with this notice (Preliminary Decision
Memorandum).
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Methodology
The Department is conducting this CVD investigation in accordance
with section 701 of the Act. For each of the subsidy programs found
countervailable, we preliminarily determine that there is a subsidy
(i.e., a financial contribution by an ``authority'' that gives rise to
a benefit to the recipient) and that the subsidy is specific.\4\ For a
full description of the methodology underlying our preliminary
conclusions, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
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\4\ See sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding
financial contribution; section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding
benefit; and section 771(5A) of the Act regarding specificity.
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In making this preliminary determination, the Department relied, in
part, on facts otherwise available, with the application of adverse
inferences.\5\ For further information, see ``Use of Facts Otherwise
Available and Application of Adverse Inferences'' in the accompanying
Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
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\5\ See section 776(a) of the Act.
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The Preliminary Decision Memorandum is a public document and is on
file electronically via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping and
Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS).
ACCESS is available to registered users at http://access.trade.gov, and
is available to all parties in the Central Records Unit, room B8024 of
the main Department of Commerce building. In addition, a complete
version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly
at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed Preliminary Decision
Memorandum and the electronic version of the Preliminary Decision
Memorandum are identical in content.
Preliminary Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part
In accordance with section 703(e)(1) of the Act, we preliminarily
find that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of truck
and bus tires from the PRC for mandatory respondent Guizhou Tyre Co.,
Ltd. (GTC) and its cross-owned trading company, Guizhou Tyre Import and
Export Co., Ltd. (GTCIE). A discussion of our determination can be
found in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
Preliminary Determination and Suspension of Liquidation
In accordance with section 703(d)(1)(A)(i) of the Act, we
calculated a CVD rate for each individually-investigated producer/
exporter of the subject merchandise. We preliminarily determine that
countervailable subsidies are being provided with respect to the
manufacture, production, or exportation of the subject merchandise. In
accordance with sections 703(d) and 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act, for
companies not individually examined, we apply an ``all-others'' rate,
which is normally calculated by weighting the subsidy rates of the
individual companies as respondents by those companies' exports of the
subject merchandise to the United States. Under section 705(c)(5)(A)(i)
of the Act, the all-others rate should exclude zero and de minimis
rates or any rates based entirely on facts otherwise available pursuant
to section 776 of the Act. Neither of the mandatory respondents' rates
in this preliminary determination were zero or de minimis or based
entirely on facts otherwise available. In order to ensure that business
proprietary information is not disclosed, we have calculated the all-
others rate as a simple average of the countervailable subsidy rates
found for the two mandatory repsondents.\6\
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\6\ See Preliminary Decision Memorandum at ``CALCULATION OF THE
ALL-OTHERS RATE'' (for further explanation of the business
propretiary information concerns).
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We preliminarily determine the countervailable subsidy rates to be:
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Subsidy rate
Company (percent)
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Double Coin Holdings Ltd.; Double Coin Group (Jiangsu) 17.06
Tyre Co., Ltd.; Double Coin Group (Chongqing) Tyre Co.,
Ltd.; Double Coin Group Shanghai Donghai Tyre Co. Ltd.;
Double Coin Group (Xinjiang) Kunlun Tyre Co., Ltd......
Guizhou Tyre Import and Export Co., Ltd.; Guizhou Tyre 23.38
Co., Ltd...............................................
All-Others.............................................. 20.22
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In accordance with sections 703(d)(1)(B) and (2) of the Act, we are
directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend
liquidation of all entries of truck and bus tires from the PRC that are
entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the
date of the publication of this notice in the Federal Register, and to
require a cash deposit for such entries of merchandise in the amounts
indicated above. Section 703(e)(2) of the Act provides that, given an
affirmative determination of critical circumstances, any suspension of
liquidation shall apply to unliquidated entries of merchandise entered,
or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the later of:
(a) The date which is 90 days before the date on which the suspension
of liquidation was first ordered; or (b) the date on which notice of
initiation of the investigation was published. We preliminarily found
that critical circumstances exist for GTC and GTCIE. Therefore, in
accordance with section 703(e)(2)(A) of the Act, we are directing CBP
to apply the suspension of liquidation to any unliquidated entries
entered, or withdrawn form warehouse for consumption by GTC and GTCIE,
on or after the date that is 90
[[Page 43579]]
days prioir to the publication of this notice in the Federal Register.
Verification
As provided in section 782(i)(1) of the Act, we intend to verify
the information submitted by the respondents prior to making our final
determination.
U.S. International Trade Commission
In accordance with section 703(f) of the Act, we will notify the
ITC of our determination. In addition, we are making available to the
ITC all non-privileged and non-proprietary information relating to this
investigation. We will allow the ITC access to all privileged and
business proprietary information in our files, provided the ITC
confirms that it will not disclose such information, either publicly or
under an administrative protective order, without the written consent
of the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.
In accordance with section 705(b)(2) of the Act, if our final
determination is affirmative, the ITC will make its final determination
within 45 days after the Department makes its final determination.
Disclosure and Public Comment
The Department intends to disclose calculations performed for this
preliminary determination to the parties within five days of the date
of public announcement of this determination in accordance with 19 CFR
351.224(b). Case briefs or other written comments may be submitted to
the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance no later than
seven days after the date on which the final verification report is
issued in this proceeding, and rebuttal briefs, limited to issues
raised in case briefs, may be submitted no later than five days after
the deadline date for case briefs.\7\ A table of contents, list of
authorities used, and an executive summary of issues should accompany
any briefs submitted to the Department, pursuant to 19 CFR
351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2). This summary should be limited to five pages
total, including footnotes.
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\7\ See 19 CFR 351.309; see also 19 CFR 351.303 (for general
filing requirements).
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Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to
request a hearing must submit a written request to the Assistant
Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce,
filed electronically using ACCESS. An electronically-filed request must
be received successfully, and in its entirety, by ACCESS by 5:00 p.m.
Eastern Time, within 30 days after the date of publication of this
notice. Requests should contain the party's name, address, and
telephone number; the number of participants; and a list of the issues
to be discussed. If a request for a hearing is made, the Department
intends to hold the hearing at the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230, at a date, time, and
specific location to be determined. Parties will be notified of the
date, time, and location of any hearing. Parties should confirm by
telephone the date, time, and location of the hearing two days before
the scheduled date.
This determination is issued and published pursuant to sections
703(f) and 777(i) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(c).
Dated: June 27, 2016.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.
Appendix I
Scope of the Investigation
The scope of the investigation covers truck and bus tires. Truck
and bus tires are new pneumatic tires, of rubber, with a truck or
bus size designation. Truck and bus tires covered by this
investigation may be tube-type, tubeless, radial, or non-radial.
Subject tires have, at the time of importation, the symbol
``DOT'' on the sidewall, certifying that the tire conforms to
applicable motor vehicle safety standards. Subject tires may also
have one of the following suffixes in their tire size designation,
which also appear on the sidewall of the tire:
TR--Identifies tires for service on trucks or buses to
differentiate them from similarly sized passenger car and light
truck tires;
MH--Identifies tires for mobile homes; and
HC--Identifies a 17.5 inch rim diameter code for use on low
platform trailers.
All tires with a ``TR,'' ``MH,'' or ``HC'' suffix in their size
designations are covered by this investigation regardless of their
intended use.
In addition, all tires that lack one of the above suffix
markings are included in the scope, regardless of their intended
use, as long as the tire is of a size that is among the numerical
size designations listed in the ``Truck-Bus'' section of the Tire
and Rim Association Year Book, as updated annually, unless the tire
falls within one of the specific exclusions set out below.
Truck and bus tires, whether or not mounted on wheels or rims,
are included in the scope. However, if a subject tire is imported
mounted on a wheel or rim, only the tire is covered by the scope.
Subject merchandise includes truck and bus tires produced in the
subject country whether mounted on wheels or rims in the subject
country or in a third country. Truck and bus tires are covered
whether or not they are accompanied by other parts, e.g., a wheel,
rim, axle parts, bolts, nuts, etc. Truck and bus tires that enter
attached to a vehicle are not covered by the scope.
Specifically excluded from the scope of this investigation are
the following types of tires: (1) Pneumatic tires, of rubber, that
are not new, including recycled and retreaded tires; and (2) non-
pneumatic tires, such as solid rubber tires.
The subject merchandise is currently classifiable under
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings:
4011.20.1015 and 4011.20.5020. Tires meeting the scope description
may also enter under the following HTSUS subheadings: 4011.99.4520,
4011.99.4590, 4011.99.8520, 4011.99.8590, 8708.70.4530,
8708.70.6030, and 8708.70.6060. While HTSUS subheadings are provided
for convenience and for customs purposes, the written description of
the subject merchandise is dispositive.
Appendix II--List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision
Memorandum
I. Summary
II. Background
III. Scope Comments
IV. Scope of the Investigation
V. Critical Circumstances
VI. Injury Test
VII. Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Application of Adverse
Inferences
VIII. Application of the Countervailing Duty Law to Imports From the
PRC
IX. Subsidies Valuation
X. Interest Rate Benchmarks, Discount Rates, Input and Land
Benchmarks
XI. Analysis of Programs
XII. Calculation of All-Others Rate
XIII. ITC Notification
XIV. Disclosure and Public Comment
XV. Verification
XVI. Conclusion
[FR Doc. 2016-15837 Filed 7-1-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P